A strangely beautiful Bengali wedding...

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My mind and heart went through immense turmoil yesterday. N and I were invited to a wedding of a new friend. I had met her once in a bar and although we were surrounded by libations of different order, we connected over tales of ilish mach and kosha mangsho. There was a connection….a bong connection:)
Their marriage was decided based on the alignment of stars and fell on a Monday! N and I decided to not go..one it was a weekday and then the temple where they were getting married was 50 miles away! I thought over it for the whole night…I am like that…matters of heart and emotion cause me a lot of distress. We had attended their sangeet last Sunday and in one passing moment found her  mom(who is btw very Bengali…) looking at me…she had never seen me before so it was kind of strange but I gave her a smile back. I wanted to give the bride a sindoorer kouto but since the bride was so busy, I decided to walk over to her mom. She held my hand and did not let go off it till I walked away. I congratulated her and she asked me to come over to her place. I tear up when I meet people like this…humble, down to earth and so full of love. It was almost like my mom was there…
We were leaving the sangeet and I knew that I wont be coming for the wedding. Walking out, I met ‘mom’ again…there she held my hand...again. And she said ‘tumi ashbe to biye te‘….and that’s it….I could not stop thinking about ‘coming to a decision’! I had a couple of meetings at work on Monday…some that I was an integral part of. It was hard to not go to work..
I decided to go with my heart and knew there were will consequences that I will have to field with my mind. And how grateful I am that I did...It was a beautiful amalgamation of two cultures and a bengali bride with a ‘mukut‘ always makes me emotional and proud of my culture.'Mom' was emotional throughout the wedding. Then she saw me…and hugged me in a way that meant ‘you would know’. It made it all worth it...
I have convinced myself that I will never ignore the desires of my heart. It was such a beautiful experience and I wish both of them the absolute best in their life!

Thank you ‘mom’ for being so special!

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